How to organise a great team building day

If you are in charge of organising a team building day for your office, we know that it can be a rather difficult and stressful task. If you are a super human and you love it, let us know your secret (please and thank you)!

In any case, it’s always good to have some tips and tricks to organising a fantastic day for everyone.

What’s the purpose of your team building day

There is no one reason for a team building day. Or, rather, there are many potential reasons and benefits!

Having clarity about what the day is aiming to achieve for your team will help you make the right decisions. The purpose of a team building day is generally set by management or HR.

If you are in charge of setting the purpose, put some thought into the questions below, document this and make sure this is communicated to the organiser.

If you are the organiser but not responsible for the purpose, make sure you get a solid understanding of the purpose of the day. Let the person responsible know that having clarity is important for the team day to be successful.

Here are 3 quick fire questions to help frame the purpose of the day:

What do you want the team to be saying at the end of the day?

What is the number one thing you want the team to learn/improve on?

Are there absolute no-go’s for this day?

Being clear about the outcome will inform everything; where you hold your day, what experience it will contain and when it will happen.

When to have your team building day

Where possible, schedule your team building activities to happen within work hours.

We understand that this is not always possible, but scheduling your team time during work hours sends a few messages:

This is so important that we are going to stop our usual tasks to take time to engage

This workplace values your time, so much so that we are doing this in work hours rather than asking you to spend more time here

This is directly related to work and to how we interact, prioritise and communicate

We have found that hosting team activities during the day that roll into optional after hours dinner or drinks can be very effective.

Make your team building day great for everyone

There are so many factors that make up a team; different personalities, different preferences, different physical abilities. This is a lot to cater for!

Make a list of what these constraints are for your team and keep them handy as you’re considering your options.

Whatever you decide to do, it is important to get buy-in with the right factors. From our experience, the important ones include making it fun, social, surprising, competitive, not too physical and interactive.

Tip: try one of our highly engaging team experiences. We have seen the positive impact these have made on a team, bringing diverse groups together through shared experience.

Where to have your team building day

Taking the team out of their normal office environment can boost productivity. New environments and stimulus can make a positive impact on thought processes, relationship building and creativity, increasing the success of team building activities.

So if possible, have your team building day out of the office. There are some fantastic venues out there. Check out some of our Brisbane fave’s.

Give your team context and information

It can be tempting to keep the activities secret from your team. This can lead to a great surprise factor, but on the flip side, a lack of information can lead to stress for some people. This can make it harder for them to engage.

So we suggest letting people know the purpose, structure and expectations for the day. Give enough information for people to know what to expect and what is expected of them.

We encourage you to get creative in how you deliver this information. How about a message via balloon that needs to be popped? A mysterious and themed email. A secret landing page that requires a riddle to be solved to enter.

These are some suggestions that come from our experience of running 100’s of corporate events. Ultimately, you know your team best and know what they need.

We are always here to help if you want to talk through your plans or if you are looking for an amazing experience to accompany your plans.

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Author Giovanna Shakhovskoy

The ‘all-rounder’, Giovanna has fingers in many pies, but thrives in managing people, working in experience design and supporting production. Giovanna is the person to talk to about partnerships and big ideas!